Bring back our drainage system in Katsina

But unfortunately, many cities and towns are becoming slums and refugee camps. A lot of families are uprooted from their homes due to poor government planning and policies.  Some of the major cities in Nigeria, such as Lagos and Kano, have already been turned into mega-slums. A research carried by an organisation called IRIN in […]

But unfortunately, many cities and towns are becoming slums and refugee camps. A lot of families are uprooted from their homes due to poor government planning and policies.  Some of the major cities in Nigeria, such as Lagos and Kano, have already been turned into mega-slums. A research carried by an organisation called IRIN in Mokoko, Lagos State, in 2006, entitled “Lagos the Mega City of Slums”, claims that the city had over 15 million people as of then and its population is growing at 8 per cent per annum. The population is estimated to reach 25 million by 2015. By then, Lagos will be the third largest city in the world. But already Lagos has some of the worst infrastructural deficits among all the mega cities of the world. “By 2015 Lagos will be the third largest city in the world but it has less infrastructure than any of the world’s other largest cities,” said Francisco Bolaji Abosede, Lagos Commissioner for Town Planning and Urbanisation.
Infrastructural deficit is a common feature in Nigerian urban centres. In Katsina city, most areas lack proper planning and features of a state capital. There is only one local government in the state capital. In my area, Kofar Kaura Layout, sewers and drainages are now being turned into shops. What is surprising to us is that, some of the people who are doing this told us that the sewers were sold to them by the local government council. We are now left with no sewers. Now that it is raining, water is overflowing into our houses and closing our roads. We don’t know what the state urban and regional planning commission will do, but maybe they are unaware of this or they are simply part of the deal. The most surprising thing is that a pharmacy has been built on our erstwhile sewer. Also a one-story residential building has been erected there too. Construction materials are still there, half way blocking our road.
  I want to call on the state urban and regional planning commission, local government council and ministry of housing to please look into this issue and address the matter before a disease outbreak in the area.

Comrade Abdulbaqi Aliyu Jari Katsina, Secretary General Layout Youth Development forum (Twitter: @jariabdubaqi).